To link to the entire object, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed the entire object, paste this HTML in websiteTo link to this page, paste this link in email, IM or documentTo embed this page, paste this HTML in website

175
famous Wilmington race riot, how bravely
they stood up and faced the enemy.” 63
As to the actual number of dead,
contemporary sources and subsequent
accountings have varied greatly. “ There has
always been a tendency to minimize or
magnify the casualties” said Harry Hayden,
explaining that many victims were
“ removed from time to time from places of
hiding under buildings, houses and shanties
and in the woods” after dying from their
wounds. 64 The Wilmington Evening
Dispatch predicted that an accurate count of
the dead would never be recorded. Thomas
Clawson, editor of the Wilmington
Messenger, stated that 10 to 12 blacks died
63 Zachary overlooked the obvious, that the men shot
in the back did not bravely face the enemy. They
were, instead, likely running for their lives from the
fighting and were possibly unarmed targets. An
article in the Washington Post noted that “ many of
the victims of the election race riots in that place
[ Wilmington] were taken to the city hospital to have
their wounds dressed or their dying moments made
easy.” The article pointed out that the hospital was on
the outskirts of Wilmington and that, during the riot,
the “ female white assistants, nurses and others took
fright and left the hospital in a body.” Therefore, not
only was the hospital overrun with emergency
patients, but many of its staff members were not on
hand to assist. Dr. R. E. Zachary, “ Gun- Shot
Wounds – With Report of a Case of Gun- Shot
Wound of Stomach” Transactions of the Medical
Society of the State of North Carolina, Forty- Sixth
Annual Meeting, ( Observer Printing and Publishing
House: Charlotte, NC, 1899), 134; Washington Post,
November 14, 1898.
64 At this point in his narrative, Hayden also provided
reports from other eyewitnesses as to the dead. He
pointed out that the Coroner held 14 inquests
although that many has not been documented due to
lack of records. He also recorded the memory of a
young man who saw a Cowan Livery Stable wagon
drive by his house with twenty dead blacks piled on
like “ cordwood” and that he later saw twenty bodies
at a black mortuary. As an example of the hidden
murders, Hayden recounted that a Red Shirt claimed
to have witnessed the shooting deaths of six men near
the Cape Fear Lumber Company plant and their
remains buried in a nearby ditch. Hayden, WLI, 92-
94.
and 2 whites were seriously wounded.
George Rountree believed that 6 or 7 blacks
were killed. Willie Parsley believed that 12
to 15 were killed. Fayetteville businessman
Peter Mallett recorded in his daybook that 8
blacks and several whites were reported
dead as a result of the riot. James Worth
wrote his wife that “ there couldn’t have
been less than 18 or 20 blacks killed and
scores wounded.” African American
restaurant owner John D. Franklin recalled
that he worked with coroner Jacobs and saw
4 dead men at the funeral home plus one
man dead at his home on Sixth between
Brunswick and Bladen. Franklin also
recalled that 2 black men died at the
hospital. 65 Rev. J. Allen Kirk wrote that the
streets were “ dotted” with dead, and a white
man informed him that he saw 10 men at the
undertaker’s office. Kirk also noted that
some dead were found later because of the
“ stench and miasma that came forth from
their decaying bodies under their houses.”
Kirk claimed that an eyewitness told him
she believed that more than 100 people
killed. In Raleigh it was reported on the
twelfth that 10 were dead outright and that at
least 25 were seriously wounded. 66 The
65 Evening Dispatch ( Wilmington), November 11,
1898; Clawson, “ Recollections and Memories;”
Rountree, “ Memorandum.” “ I felt sure that in the
event of a collision there would be several hundred
[ killed] but I overestimated their courage or
foolhardiness.” Willie to Sallie, [ November 12,
1898], Eccles Family Papers, Southern Historical
Collection, University of North Carolina Library,
Chapel Hill; “ War commenced/ Race at Wilmington
today— 8 negroes reported killed and several
whites— Col. Waddell and best citizens in [ ]. More
trouble feared tonight/ Russell French and other scum
did keep out of the way— negroes suffer.” Daybook,
Peter Mallett papers, Southern Historical Collection,
University of North Carolina Library, Chapel Hill;
James Worth to Josephine, November 126, 1898,
James S. Worth Papers, Southern Historical
Collection, University of North Carolina Library,
Chapel Hill; Contested Election Case, 19- 20.
66 Kirk and Hayden both acknowledged that mortally
wounded men fled the fighting and were later found

175
famous Wilmington race riot, how bravely
they stood up and faced the enemy.” 63
As to the actual number of dead,
contemporary sources and subsequent
accountings have varied greatly. “ There has
always been a tendency to minimize or
magnify the casualties” said Harry Hayden,
explaining that many victims were
“ removed from time to time from places of
hiding under buildings, houses and shanties
and in the woods” after dying from their
wounds. 64 The Wilmington Evening
Dispatch predicted that an accurate count of
the dead would never be recorded. Thomas
Clawson, editor of the Wilmington
Messenger, stated that 10 to 12 blacks died
63 Zachary overlooked the obvious, that the men shot
in the back did not bravely face the enemy. They
were, instead, likely running for their lives from the
fighting and were possibly unarmed targets. An
article in the Washington Post noted that “ many of
the victims of the election race riots in that place
[ Wilmington] were taken to the city hospital to have
their wounds dressed or their dying moments made
easy.” The article pointed out that the hospital was on
the outskirts of Wilmington and that, during the riot,
the “ female white assistants, nurses and others took
fright and left the hospital in a body.” Therefore, not
only was the hospital overrun with emergency
patients, but many of its staff members were not on
hand to assist. Dr. R. E. Zachary, “ Gun- Shot
Wounds – With Report of a Case of Gun- Shot
Wound of Stomach” Transactions of the Medical
Society of the State of North Carolina, Forty- Sixth
Annual Meeting, ( Observer Printing and Publishing
House: Charlotte, NC, 1899), 134; Washington Post,
November 14, 1898.
64 At this point in his narrative, Hayden also provided
reports from other eyewitnesses as to the dead. He
pointed out that the Coroner held 14 inquests
although that many has not been documented due to
lack of records. He also recorded the memory of a
young man who saw a Cowan Livery Stable wagon
drive by his house with twenty dead blacks piled on
like “ cordwood” and that he later saw twenty bodies
at a black mortuary. As an example of the hidden
murders, Hayden recounted that a Red Shirt claimed
to have witnessed the shooting deaths of six men near
the Cape Fear Lumber Company plant and their
remains buried in a nearby ditch. Hayden, WLI, 92-
94.
and 2 whites were seriously wounded.
George Rountree believed that 6 or 7 blacks
were killed. Willie Parsley believed that 12
to 15 were killed. Fayetteville businessman
Peter Mallett recorded in his daybook that 8
blacks and several whites were reported
dead as a result of the riot. James Worth
wrote his wife that “ there couldn’t have
been less than 18 or 20 blacks killed and
scores wounded.” African American
restaurant owner John D. Franklin recalled
that he worked with coroner Jacobs and saw
4 dead men at the funeral home plus one
man dead at his home on Sixth between
Brunswick and Bladen. Franklin also
recalled that 2 black men died at the
hospital. 65 Rev. J. Allen Kirk wrote that the
streets were “ dotted” with dead, and a white
man informed him that he saw 10 men at the
undertaker’s office. Kirk also noted that
some dead were found later because of the
“ stench and miasma that came forth from
their decaying bodies under their houses.”
Kirk claimed that an eyewitness told him
she believed that more than 100 people
killed. In Raleigh it was reported on the
twelfth that 10 were dead outright and that at
least 25 were seriously wounded. 66 The
65 Evening Dispatch ( Wilmington), November 11,
1898; Clawson, “ Recollections and Memories;”
Rountree, “ Memorandum.” “ I felt sure that in the
event of a collision there would be several hundred
[ killed] but I overestimated their courage or
foolhardiness.” Willie to Sallie, [ November 12,
1898], Eccles Family Papers, Southern Historical
Collection, University of North Carolina Library,
Chapel Hill; “ War commenced/ Race at Wilmington
today— 8 negroes reported killed and several
whites— Col. Waddell and best citizens in [ ]. More
trouble feared tonight/ Russell French and other scum
did keep out of the way— negroes suffer.” Daybook,
Peter Mallett papers, Southern Historical Collection,
University of North Carolina Library, Chapel Hill;
James Worth to Josephine, November 126, 1898,
James S. Worth Papers, Southern Historical
Collection, University of North Carolina Library,
Chapel Hill; Contested Election Case, 19- 20.
66 Kirk and Hayden both acknowledged that mortally
wounded men fled the fighting and were later found